Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(69)

She pinched her brows together. “Vance knows what?”

“I mean, I guess I should say, he remembers.”

She gasped and set her beer down on a coffee table that looked like a stack of suitcases. “This is huge! I told you, did I tell you? I told you he knew. What guy makes out with someone and doesn’t remember? How did it come up? You have to tell me every single juicy detail. I mean, it better be juicy based off the expression on your face.”

I thought back to how the whole scene had played out, since I’d chosen to only replay that one segment of our conversation. “He was goofing around like he always does and I told him to stop then, I don’t know, he kind of just blurted it out. He’s been pretending he didn’t remember all this time.”

She squinted. “Did he say why?”

“So things wouldn’t be weird between us?”

She shrugged. “All right, you guys work together. I guess that makes sense.”

“But then he told me he loved kissing me.”

Becca fell back into her sofa and fanned herself. “Oh my God, that’s so hot. I knew he had a thing for you.”

“I think ‘did’ is a better word. He did have a thing for me, but he never acted like it.”

“Maybe you missed the signs?”

“Seriously, I’m a girl. How would I have missed that? He always hung around me, but he never did anything but train with me.”

“Ever?”

I ran through myriads of memories. “I don’t think so. I’m pretty perceptive most of the time. I’d like to think I would have picked up on something. I’m telling you he never made a move, and then I met Gabe. I just figured, you know, whatever. The situation was what it was. We got along great and got offered the job at B&B. End of story.”

“But Gabe is out of the picture now, more or less. Seriously, I’m dying for you. This is so exciting.”

“The corpse of my relationship isn’t even cold. Plus, I don’t know if Gabe is out of the picture completely. Probably though.” I frowned. “And then Oliver’s stupid personal assistant Cici showed up for a date. Vance apparently offered to take her around for a night on the town.”

Becca curled her lip up in a snarl. “Ugh, well that sucks.”

“Ya think? How about standing there and getting shooed into my car. Vance treated me like a third wheel.”

She blinked and took a moment to digest what I’d said. “Ouch.”

“It still stings.” I slumped back against the couch.

“That’s so not how I was hoping this story was going to end.”

“Ugh, yeah. He caught me off guard, but if he would have kissed me, I would have let him.”

“What, like, you never would have before?”

I furrowed my brow. “No… Yes...I don’t know. Am I making any sense?”

“You’re making total sense. Does Vance know about what’s going on with Gabe?”

“No way.” I shook my head.

“Why haven’t you told him?”

I drank a big gulp of beer. “Because of the Oliver thing for starters. This is too much for me to think about. With work, Gabe, and now this, I can’t freaking think straight. I don’t know my ass from my elbow.”

“Well crap. You do have a lot on your plate.” She picked her beer up and clanked her bottle against mine. We both took big swigs. “By the way, should he be going out with someone you’re working with?”

The bitter beer burned my throat. “She’s not really our client, Oliver is. There’s nothing written in our rules saying anything about that. I don’t like her though.”

“Obviously. Why would you?”

“She’s fake and bubbly, and ugh, you know? Just ugh.” I groaned.

She blew out a big breath. “This kind of stuff can mess with a girl’s head.”

“Hell yes, it does. I can’t get over the fact that he’s known all this time. It’s twisting my stomach in knots.”

“Because you have a thing for him.”

“I don’t.” But maybe for the first time ever, I realized I did, or at least, I might.

“I’m sorry, but you do. Part of you wants that hot thing of a partner.”

I grimaced and drank. “It doesn’t matter anyway.” I set my beer down and covered my face with my hands. “Why Cici? Why her?”

“Well, she’s not going to be here forever. It’ll be over soon then what will you do?”

I blinked, sighed, and blinked some more. “I don’t know. What the heck do I do?”

She pursed her lips and glanced at the ceiling. “The only thing you can do. Continue on like nothing ever happened. He said he didn’t want to tell you he remembered because he didn’t want it to be weird. Well, he told you, and now it’s weird. Hashtag, fail. Try to put the incident behind you and go about your business until this assignment is over.”

“I guess you’re right.” I smiled. “This too shall pass, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, we need to solve my dating life, or lack thereof.”

We finished our first beers, and she told me some of her woes from work. Later that night, after I was buzzed from having one too many, I fell into bed.